


December, 1974

by bellasgonemissing



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Marauders' Era, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 07:46:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17117312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellasgonemissing/pseuds/bellasgonemissing
Summary: In which a prank is planned, James embarrasses himself, an awkward mistletoe kiss occurs and Christmas cheer is achieved





	December, 1974

**Author's Note:**

> I got some sudden inspiration after months of not writing about them, to write a Christmassy Marauders story so here's that. Enjoy (:

In the weeks leading up to Christmas in his fourth year of school at Hogwarts James Potter became increasingly certain that this Christmas would be the one where Lily Evans would fall completely, inexorably in love with him. Remus Lupin, on the other hand, was not nearly so confident about his own romantic interest. He wasn’t sure that James should be so cocky either as, as a result spending much of his time with Lily, he was positive she had absolutely no interest in him other than to badmouth him. Sirius, at least, never said anything bad of Remus but that didn’t stop it from being impossible for him to ever have any interest in him.

Christmas, however was not a time to be sulky about unrequited love and so it was with that in mind Remus went about the usual tradition of festive prank planning. This year Remus, James, Sirius and Peter decided to let everyone have a peaceful Christmas feast, unlike other years (the elf ears didn’t go away for weeks) and just focus on tormenting Slytherins.

'We could charm them all to have reindeer antlers.' Peter suggested as the four of them sat on James' bed in their dormitory, plotting.

'Or curse them so they can't eat anything but brussel sprouts at the feast?' Remus' contribution.

‘What are the two things Slytherins hate?” James questioned the other three.

‘Being friendly?’ Suggested Peter.

‘Being poor?’ Sirius put in.

‘Both correct’, agreed James. ‘But I was going to say Christmas cheer and Gryffindors. He was met with silence. ‘So we change Christmas carols into songs about how great Gryffindor is and make them listen to them constantly’. This statement on the other hand, was met with all-round enthusiasm.

‘So we have to somehow make up new lyrics to Christmas carols, find a way to make those songs play in the Slytherin Common Room without stopping not to mention get into their common room.’ Peter said. ‘Sounds great.’

\--

Hogwarts did not shy away from Christmas decorations. There was tinsel strung across every wall and Christmas trees at every corner. Wreaths were hung up on every door and there was mistletoe. The unfortunate thing about this was that you couldn’t just find yourself under it with someone, look at each other with flushed faces, laugh it off and walk away, you couldn’t give them a quick kiss on the cheek. No, if you were under the mistletoe with someone at Hogwarts, you had to kiss them, you literally couldn’t move anywhere else until you did. Remus wasn’t sure if Dumbledore found this humorous or if he thought anyone actually appreciated it but it meant that everyone had to creep everywhere with extreme caution when walking the halls. There had been quite a few accounts of students who were sent to the hospital wing after banging into walls or suits of armour after staring up at the ceiling in fear.

Remus, after four years of this, was now very aware of the repercussions of not taking these precautions, just this year he had already had to kiss Peter (not a bad kisser really, and not too awkward either although the height difference did make things a little more difficult) and Marlene McKinnon (more awkward, some fumbling, good kisser though). It was with great relief that Remus had avoided any similar encounters with Sirius. Until a week before Christmas, that is when they were walking to the Great Hall for lunch. Remus was sucked into an astonishingly in depth conversation on the five times pixie blood has been used in a heist, something Sirius, for some reason, knew a lot about. They were on number three when they found themselves unable to move. Fucking pixies. Remus didn’t know that hearts could beat as fast as his was in that moment. He just stood there, his body refusing to move, stomach doing aerobics. He didn’t have much time to panic however because Sirius had already tilted his head down to press a kiss to his lips. It wasn’t anything like the others he’d had to kiss, it was strong but soft at the same time and he melted into it, energy coursed through him. Cheeks on fire. _Oh my god, this happening_. But then it was over and they were able to move again. They just looked at each other for a second, Remus attempted speech but the words refused to form, before resuming they’re walk to lunch.

\--

While Sirius didn’t seem to think much at all of this interaction, it weighed on Remus’ mind. The fact of having kissed Sirius was so completely absurd that Remus that he had trouble believing it had really happened. Maybe it was a just a very realistic daydream (wouldn’t be the first time). He really didn’t want anything to seem abnormal though, so he went about Christmas preparation with as much ease as he could muster. James insisted that they set up a tree in their dorm, (in Remus’ opinion there were already more than enough around the rest of school) they played carols from one of James’ dad’s old record and ended up spending more time dancing badly and singing even worse than doing any actual decorating. Peter then insisted that they bake Christmas cookies (Remus’ thought this a much better idea as he convinced Peter to put chocolate chips in the dough.) And of course there was a prank to plan. Remus and Sirius scouted the best route down to the Slytherin Common Room in the dungeons without getting seen. They had the map they had been working on to aid them but it wasn’t finished yet and led them into a few black pits where the staircases had moved. Its tracking feature wasn’t quite up to scratch yet either so they found themselves face to face with Professor McGonagall right outside the dungeons when it said she was in the charms corridor.

‘Lupin, Black, may I ask what you’re down here?’ She looked down her rimmed glasses at them. Remus quickly muttered the words to deactivate the map.

‘Can I say no?’ Sirius asked, as charmingly as possible. (Which was extremely charming.)

McGonagall harrumphed at them. ‘Let me rephrase. Tell me what you are doing down here or you’ll both be in detention for a week after Christmas.’

Remus, a far better liar than Sirius decided to take it from here. ‘We were just going to ask Professor Slughorn a question about the homework he assigned us.’

A moment of consideration. ‘Fine. But stop acting so suspicious, people will think you’re causing mischief.’

‘Please Professor.’ Sirius said. ‘Us? Causing mischief? That would never happen.’ McGonagall was not amused by this and stalked away down the hall, Remus found it adorable. The two of them burst out laughing and Remus was overwhelmed, as he had been many times before, by the sound of Sirius’ laugh, which made his mind buzz and his heart stutter.

‘We’ve really gotta fix this stupid map.’

‘Yep.’

\--

Five days before Christmas and the plan was in motion. Sirius and James had composed some truly great lyrics to classic Christmas carols, ready to blast into the unsuspecting ears of Slytherins hoping to enjoy a peaceful night in their common room. Remus and Peter had researched how to enchant that music to play and how to keep it playing, something that had luckily been written about in charms books. They made their way quietly down to the dungeons, charming their feet to not make any noise on the echoing stones underfoot. With the protection of an Invisibility Cloak and slightly improved map, they got there without being seen. Peter had heard the password from a sixth year girl earlier that morning, which also told him the wall to tell it to. They slid inside, Peter being their lookout. It being three in the morning, no one was in the common room so they made quick work of the spells that would activate two hours later, giving the Slytherins an early wake up call.

They were greeted with delight the next morning at breakfast, when they walked into the Great Hall to see most Slytherins already there, no doubt trying to avoid the racket of the dungeons. Some had their foreheads to the tables and others were moaning into their cereal.

‘Well I think that worked perfectly.’ Sirius and James high fived each other and Remus couldn’t help but look a little smug himself.

‘Honestly, I don’t know what they’re so upset about.’ Said Peter. ‘Our versions were so much better than the originals. Don’t they know we’re just trying to give them a little bit of Christmas cheer?’

\--

‘Honestly, you four, what were you _thinking_? That was incredibly immature of you!’ Lily, that afternoon was having her say on the matter in the Gryffindor Common Room shouting down at the four of them who were in a couch near the fire. It wasn’t a very big couch, meaning much of Sirius’ body was pressed against Remus’, which his stomach took as a cue to start twisting its way around to the rest of his body.

‘Um, Lily, what exactly are you talking about?” Remus asked. Peter and Sirius quickly took on confused expressions while James was too caught up in staring at Lily admiringly to do anything else.

‘Oh come on, don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.’

‘Uh…’

‘The music? In the Slytherin Common Room? This morning?’ She asked exasperatedly.

‘Lily. How do you know about this? Were you in the Slytherin Common Room this morning? Sirius asked, knowing of course, that their prank had been talked about all day outside of their common room but enjoying winding Lily up.

‘No Black of course not, I just heard about it.’

‘Ah well that’s the problem then, not everything you hear on the grapevine is true. Probably just people spreading rumours.’ Sirius looked entirely too pleased with himself.

‘You know full well that’s not true.’

‘Well if they’re not rumours, do you actually know any details?’

‘Someone- _you_.’ She said, glaring at each of them in turn. ‘Made ‘carols’ play _very loudly_ in the dungeons. And it was _not funny_.’

‘Lily, are you saying you don’t like Christmas carols?’ questioned Peter.

‘No that’s not what I’m saying, I like carols, just not like this.’ She replied in a humph.

‘Okay but Lily.’ Said James. ‘If we did do it, don’t you think that would be pretty impressive?’

‘ _Shut up James!_ ’ The rest of them said in unison.

\--

Three days before Christmas had Remus and Lily sitting together on a couch in the Gryffindor Common Room. Lily was finishing knitting a hat to give to her mother, and Remus was resolutely not paying attention to the flirting going on between Sirius and a group of third year girls on the other side of the room. Lily kept glancing at him with knowing looks, which were really not doing anything to keep morale up.

‘I really think you should just tell him.’ She said.

‘I know you do.’ He grumbled back.

‘Yep, and I’m always right, so just _tell him_.’

Remus wasn’t sure how Lily thought she right in this situation as Sirius was, right then, winking very emphatically at a girl who looked like she was about to make out with right there and then.

‘Lily, he clearly doesn’t like guys, there’s no point in telling him.’

‘Says the bi person.’ Remus took an annoyed bite of chocolate in reply.

‘Honestly, Remus, why don’t you just try? What’s the worst that could happen?’

‘Oh I don’t know.’ Remus rolled his eyes. ‘He thinks I’m weird and avoids me for the rest of his life and we’re never friends again?’

‘Remus I’ve seen how much he loves being around you. That’s not going to happen.’

‘Sure.’

‘Do you seriously want to hold on to these feelings you’re whole life and never know what he would have said? Sure he might not reciprocate your feelings (she did not sound wholly convinced of this part) but he could also be madly in love with you and you could be so happy.’

Sirius decided that would be a good time to join the conversation. ‘What’s going on? We trying to get Remus to be happy? What do I have to do? Name it.’

Lily just smirked.

\--

‘I have a plan.’ James announced to the dormitory on Christmas Eve. This was met with a collective groan and rolling of eyes.

‘Does this plan have anything to do with Lily Evans?’ Remus questioned.

‘Of course.’ Said James, grinning.

‘And I assume you think this is the one that’s going to work?’ Peter raised an eyebrow at him.

‘Pete, all my plans have worked. Every time, Lily falls a little bit more in love with me, it’s a just slow process.’

‘Uh huh.’ Nodding along was really the only sensible thing to do at this point.

‘As evidenced by our amazing display earlier in the week, Lily loves Christmas carols.’

‘I don’t think that-‘

‘So, I’m going to serenade her.’

‘Oh god’, said Remus, face palming.

'So that’s what all the singing in the shower’s been for’, said Peter.

‘I’ve been trying to learn Muggle Christmas songs.’ Retorted James, annoyed his genius wasn’t getting the recognition it deserved.

‘You know, I’m not even going to bother trying stop you.’ Said Sirius.

\--

Peter, Remus and Sirius found Lily downstairs in the common room with Dorcas and Marlene trying to magic birds from their wands, so far they’d only managed butterflies. Lily looked at them suspiciously as they made themselves comfortable on their couch, but then again, most people did.

And then a loud blast of music and James Potter appears on the stairs, reindeer antlers on his head, wearing the ugliest Christmas jumper he could find, very loudly and very badly singing along to ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’. Some emphatic hand gestures thrown in there and Lily was gaping at him, looking half angry, half embarrassed and trying to hide behind Marlene. Marlene and Dorcas, in very similar fashion to Sirius, Remus and Peter were laughing so hard it hurt. The fact that James could ever think this would make Lily like him was beyond Remus. He could maybe admire the way he had literally no shame though, what with every person in Gryffindor baring witness to this display which would quite possibly, be burnt into their memory forever as James had decided to add some very beautiful dance moves to the mix. Some of the witnesses had started to boo and shout, while others, like Sirius, were clapping along, extremely entertained.

Once the song (thankfully) ended James fell to his knees in front of Lily, who was now just a pile of couch cushions, breathing heavily but also looked very pleased with himself which amazed Remus and said, as he had many, many times before, ‘Lily Evans, will you go on date with me?’

Lily emerged tentatively from the couch, the whole common room watching on and said, ‘Potter. You have got to be kidding me’, and then burst into fits of laughter.

She admitted to Remus later that it was kind of, maybe, just a little bit sweet.

\--

It was Christmas Eve and everyone had slowly filtered out of the common room after final mad present wrapping and trying to hide those presents from the friends they were going to be gifted to. This left Remus and Sirius alone, with James and Peter being in kitchens trying to get samples of the next day’s feast. Once again having claimed the couch by the fire, they sat, as they often did, huddled together for warmth, cups of never cooling hot chocolate in cupped hands. While Sirius was drawing a scene from their Hogsmeade visit earlier in the month, Remus let his mind wander as he stared in the flames curling up from the grate. Despite all efforts to stop himself, he couldn’t help but think about what Lily had said a few days earlier. He had never really let himself consider telling Sirius how he felt, convinced that it could only end in misery but he now he almost felt those feelings as a physical thing, a weight that though not entirely unpleasant, he still had to carry around with him. He noticed a shift in the calmness of the moment, a sudden but building tension. Sirius had stopped drawing.

‘Hey Remus?”

‘Mm?’

‘You’ve been acting a little weird since we had to kiss the other day. I just- I don’t want anything to be weird, I don’t know, should I have gone about it differently? I just thought it would probably be best not to think about it for too long. I’m sorry though, I know you didn’t want to kiss, there just wasn’t really any way around it.’ Sirius looked concerned and truly remorseful.

 _Panic_. Oh god. What the hell? _Shit_.

‘Oh, um’, Remus shifted uncomfortably, the hot chocolate suddenly feeling as if it were scalding his hands. He was hyper-aware of every point their bodies met. Butterflies fighting for room in his stomach. ‘Th-that’s not why I’ve been weird about it though.’

‘Oh… was I just a really bad kisser?’

Honestly, fuck it. Butterflies can go screw themselves. Remus turned to Sirius, forcing himself not to look down at his hands.

‘No Sirius you’re not a bad kisser, you are a far too good kisser. The problem isn’t that I didn’t want to kiss you, it’s that I really, really wanted to kiss you.’

A silence that held Remus’ whole heart followed. Sirius’ face was indiscernible, and then he smiled, just a bit.

‘God Remus, you know that I’ve wanted to kiss you too. I like you just so much.’

Oh. That was not in the list of possible outcomes. ‘What?’

‘Y’know? I have a crush on you? I want be with you? Romantically?’

Remus sighed. ‘Yeah, I know but I mean… how? How could you possibly like me? This was met with a blank stare. ‘Sirius… I’m a monster.’

Sirius’ face completely changed, a look of anxiety and sympathy and affection overtaking his features.

‘Remus. You are the furthest thing from a monster it is possible to be. How could I like you? I don’t know, because you’re caring and warm and smart and know when someone’s upset and exactly what to do to fix it. You won’t take shit from anyone and you’re sarcastic and completely adorable and always know what to say and are a complete genius. You take so much care in everything you do. You’re beautiful and strong and so fucking brave. I could go on, honestly, I just think you’re incredible.’

Remus had never felt warmer. His heart filled with helium. He cheeks began hurting and he realised it was from smiling so hard.

‘I- could we maybe try that kiss again?’

And now Sirius was smiling too and they were kissing and it was so much better than the first, Remus felt like he was floating as static sparked along his skin, his heart pressing its way into the outside world. They broke apart and just breathed for a moment, Sirius looked at Remus as if he was the only person in the world that mattered.

‘Yeah. Not a bad kisser at all.’ Remus said. Sirius took his hand. ‘Okay but what about the other day, with those girls? You were flirting the pants off them.’

‘Oh.’ Sirius looked embarrassed. ‘I didn’t mean anything by it, I guess it was pretty shitty of me, for you and them. That’s not going to happen anymore, okay?’

Remus nodded. ‘So you definitely like guys then?’

‘Hm, one particular guy really.’ He leant forwards to kiss Remus on the forehead. A happy buzz filled Remus’ chest that he was sure wasn’t going away for a long time. ‘You’re the best.’

Sirius nuzzled into the crook of Remus’ neck, feet tangling together. Their hands that weren’t tracing patterns on the other’s sipped their magically refilled hot chocolate. As snow fell outside and the clock struck midnight on Christmas Day, Remus thought that there was nothing in the universe better than this.

**Author's Note:**

> Drink every time I use parentheses in this honestly   
> Also lets just ignore the fact that everyone in the school is there for Christmas for some reason.


End file.
